Page 87 - ARTE!Brasileiros #41

But we also use the traditional research format, went to South There are biennials created to address just one region, as was
America, North America, South Africa - where I went for the that of the Mercosur, in Porto Alegre, or Europe, like Manifesta.
first time and found it amazing, we could do an entire biennial The most recent iniatives of them is Bienalsur – International
only with artists from there, there is a very strong scene. Biennial of Contemporary Art from South America.
“We use the term biennial as a Trojan horse,” mocks
To curate a biennial is a process in time, one day ends, to create an Diana Wechsler, artistic-academic director of Bienalsur.
artwork is a process in space, which remains. How do you differentiate For her, this was a way to gain support and interest of
these two tasks? interlocutors in Argentina and abroad. The metaphor
Cure a biennial is a work that consumes too much, from makes sense, after all everything that encompasses this
one moment to another you gets caught up from political recent biennial with headquarters in Buenos Aires, goes
situations to get sponsors, set logos, spaces. Is a monster far beyond what any other of the genre has already
and, in the last six months, we virtually stopped producing our reached. First, it is organized from a public university,
work, so much so that I’m afraid of return to atelier( laughs). UNTREF (Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero), which
gives a more focused on research and less concerned
I think this is the first time a biennial is ready almost a month before with tourism or the art market, although your principal
the opening, this is the Scandinavian way of producing a biennial? and managing director of the event, Anibal Jozami, and
Super neurotic, as the films of Bergman, you mean (laughs), your wife, brazilian journalist Marlise Ilhesca, being a
with the entire protestant guilt…Well, one thing that we prestigious couple of contemporary art collectors.
bring as artists is this pragmatic experience, anyway we In addition to Wechsler, however, who directs the
already participate in many biennials, and we know that to master’s and doctoral courses in Visual Arts at UNTREF,
put 60 to 70 projects together takes time. We had a fantastic an academic committee with 30 universities from all over
time and also, maybe this relates to the difficulties of the the planet, from Japan to Brazil, strengthen the research
moment, there was an incredible positive energy around side of the biennial.
the biennial, of all technicians, assistants, volunteers, like The UNTREF, it’s worth remember, has an exhibition space
all want something good to happen. in Buenos Aires, the Contemporary Art Centre and Museum
of immigration, where it’s been excellent shows, such as
How do you started curating? “Levantes”, now at Sesc Pinheiros, in Sao Paulo, curated by
We never feel in fact opposition between artisti and curatorial French Georges Didi-Huberman, who owns a chair at Buenos
practices. When we started at the beginning of the years Aires University, and “To lost the human form”, organized
90, in Copenhagen, there was not a commercial scene, and together with the Reina Sofia Museum. So is not forced to
either an institutional scene, so anything was possible and say that from there comes a biennial. Odd, in speaking of
everything was up to us to create our exhibitions, magazines, this circuit is that it occurs simultaneously in 32 spaces, 84
performances, exhibition spaces, festivals cities in 16 countries , the most in Latin America, but also in
Australia, France and Japan .With it, it is virtually impossible
But is rare this recognition a sboth artists and curators. This is the to have an accurate assessment of this initiative.
first biennial, isn’t it? Although it contains explicitly in title that it is from South
Yes, and probably the last. (laughs) But, you know, was natural, America, the concept of South is closer to what the Sesc
thinking again in Copenhagen. At that time, was almost the Videobrasil Festival comes to offering, that is, to display
only option think of everything as a “gesamtkunstwerk” not hegemonic practices, that occur not only in the South
(total art work) formally. In documenta 14 ,that also dealt with this issue,
this occurred with the appropriation of Greek magazine
1 | THE NORWEGIAN INGAR DRAGSET AND THE DANISH MICHAEL ELMGREEN, CURATORS “South as a State of Mind” , that in Europe represents a
OF 15TH. ISTANBUL BIENNIAL way of thinking not as tough and rationalist as what occurs
2 | ANDREA JOYCE HEIMER, WORK DISPLAYED IN THE GREEK SCHOOL, IN ISTANBUL in northern countries.
3 | PHOTO OF PYZ 1915 INSTALLATION, FROM MEXICAN ARTIST ALEJANDRO ALMANZA PERADA With this expansion of the South concept, the Argentinian
biennial also deals with political positioning. To Jozami, who
BIENNIAL BIENAL SUR GLOBAL | PAGES 20 TO 25 in addition to Dean is also entrepreneur, to invest in an event
BIENNIAL, PERO NO MUCHO so complex is part of the function of the University. “Art and
culture are often viewed as palliative for those who suffer
BIENALSUR, CREATED IN ARGENTINA, EXPANDS CONCEPT OF SHOW, social inequalities, but one of our axis is precisely to support
OCCUPYING 84 HEADQUARTERS IN 16 COUNTRIES social projects that give visibility to marginalized groups
“said to ARTE! Brasileiros, on the large cabinet with wooden
BY FABIO CYPRIANO, BUENOS AIRES furniture of the room of the rectory, in the Recoleta district.
There he responds to everything with details, except when
THE BIENNIAL FORMAT HAS LONG SINCE ceased to the question is about values. In Argentina, there are no laws
have a single standard and, even though in general contains to encourage culture, what makes the sponsorship direct
a multinational presence, many experiments are usually made. from the State or from the private initiative, and the Dean